Vaccination improves the equity of health among the poor. – VoICE
Key Concept

Key Evidence: A group of experts evaluated a number of maternal, neonatal, and child health interventions for equity across wealth quintiles using data from 1990-2006. Immunization was found to have the narrowest differences in coverage of services between the poorest and wealthiest children (28% higher coverage in the highest wealth quintile compared to the lowest). By contrast, indicators of treatment coverage for children sick with diarrhea and pneumonia were nearly 60% higher in the highest wealth quintile compared to the poorest. This means that poor children are at a much greater disadvantage with respect to receiving treatment for pneumonia and diarrhea than they are for receiving vaccines to prevent these infections.

Boerma, T., et al, for the Countdown 2008 Equity Analysis Group 2008. Mind the gap: equity and trends in coverage of maternal, newborn and child health services in 54 Countdown countries. Lancet. 371(9620).
View Publication >

Key Evidence: A package of 5 vaccines was delivered, and it was found that children from poorer households benefited more in terms of health outcomes from immunization than did those from relatively wealthier households. Results suggest that most of the risk of dying before age five can be eliminated with full immunization in the severely health-deprived setting.

Bawah, A.A., Phillips, J.F., Adjuik, M., et al 2010. The impact of immunization on the association between poverty and child survival: Evidence from Kassena-Nankana district of northern Ghana. Scandanavian Journal of Public Health. 38(1).
View Publication >